Saturday, November 25, 2006

Scoopz Ice Cream

itunes: Five For Fighting, Two Lights (2006)


Hey, you got to try this once in your lifetime. Scoopz Ice Cream, the best ice cream in town! The most unique thing is the making process. The cream and the fruit bits are blended together and then the ‘dough’ is flipped and turned repeatedly by hand on a freezing pan. This action results in a dense and smooth texture in the ice cream. The best thing to know is little sugar is added and the generously added fruit bits acts as the sweetener instead. So you can imagine eating ice-cream with real fruits in it! But of cos, please do not compare with off-the-shelves ice creams tub that claims that they contain real fruits. There is no way Haagen Daaz or Ben & Jerry can match up to Scoopz for 1 simple reason, that is FRESHNESS!!

You can even specifically request for sugarless ice cream (which is sold in tubs and have to place order in advance).

Scoopz Ice Cream comes in many flavours: apart from the normal ones like chocolate, chocolate chips, rum & raisins, green tea, cookie & cream, peach, peach, durian and strawberry. It also has rare exotic flavours like watermelon, grape, lemon, coconut and avocado.

My favourite flavour is green tea and coconut. Particularly for the green tea, the ice cream is not sweet and a very strong green tea flagrance, as if they have added lots of green tea powder in it. It's like drinking a cup of frozen green tea, really heaven!! Coconut is another babe. With coconut meat bits, it just taste like eating one young coconut itself. Yum Yum. I also tried the lemon flavour before, but it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sour and I cant hardly finish it fast, nevertheless, it still taste good! In fact, I notice the biggest selling flavour from this shop is durian. I have tried once but I’m not really a durian fan. But all I can say is like other flavours, it’s as good as eating the fruit itself!! Most crucial thing is, they are just mildly sweet! Perfect dessert!!

The 'ice cream dough' making in progress....

I have found a link on the interview with the founder of Scoopz:
http://www1.soe.org.sg/soevote/public/nomineedetail06.php?nid=621

Sunday, November 19, 2006

No Music No Life 11/2006

itunes: Rachael Yamagata, Happenstance (2004)

The list of CDs that I have bought so far in November. As a music nazi, I want to share the music that I own on this blog and hopefully able to 'educate' many to move away from radio pop thrash. Yeah, I'm a music snob (hehe but I do own some closet trash music CDs too and that's no way I'm going to disclose haha). NO MUSIC NO LIVE.


Corrinne May, The Gift (2006)
Christmas is here!! I love to collect Christmas albums....


Rachael Yamagata, Happenstance (2004)
This is a fastastic album, not to be missed!
Read the review: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:xu5h8q9zbt94


Sarah Mclachlan, Wintersong (2006)
Christmas is here!! Another one to add to my Christmas albums collection.


Simply Red, For The Babies (1992)
I love this song, bought this single from Yahoo Auction


Steely Dan, A Decade Of Steely Dan (1985)
Steely Dan is classic, bought this from Yahoo Auction


今井美樹, 年下の水夫 (2006)
Miki Imai is my favourite Jpop artist. To me, she is the most perfect woman in the world. This is the first single taken from the forthcoming album Milestone (to be released on 25th Nov). Cant wait to listen to the new album! I have attached the MTV of this single. Enjoy!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Mille Fois Merci, Monsieur Dutang...

itunes: 小田和正, 自己ベスト (2002)

Hi Hi I'm back after nearly 2 weeks! I have been busy with my work as usual but most importantly, getting ready for my Financial Director's visit this week. He left yesterday after 3 days of reviewing the accounts with me. I'm glad that he was pleased with most of the messy accounts have been cleared. I guess that's served as a small motivation for me, at least someone appreciates my hard labour in digging and clearing the massive mountain of old shit. Hehe, nevertheless I still have a long outstanding list of task to perform before the year end and hopefully by the time the auditors are here for year end audit in Jan 07, things can be spick and span.

Talking about my Financial Director, this time he looked more like Harry Potter than the Orlando Bloom star quality when he was last here in May (see my May blog). No wonder the girls in my office did not behave as fan-crazed as before. Haha

However, what pleased me most is that eventually I have found a chimney to funnel all my anger and frustration on that incorrigible fanatic useless IT manager (IFU, for more details, please refer to my earlier blogs on him). My FD, upon arrival on Wednesday afternoon, went to speak to him on some issues and he returned to my room, he asked what has this guy been doing? I just smiled and keep quiet as I do not think it’s appropriate to say anything in detail about this guy. However, that evening, my FD brought this matter up again. He told me that he has assigned IFU to work on a special assignment on the system during his last visit and till today, he has not done a single thing and during the conversation this morning, IFU starts giving excuses of why tasks are not completed. I laughed out heartedly and poured out everything of what I know about IFU and on how much he stalled everybody’s work when he did nothing but his own personal agenda in the office. Of course, to create a greater effect, my eyes to shimmer innocence and helplessness and I tried not to make my tone too sour and make it sounds more like a professional complaint. Yeah, I even suggest to him to take a peek on his monitor whenever he walk past IFU workstation. Well, I'm not afraid to say that I'm a professional bitch at work, hehe. Well well well, there are jobs to be done and things to be said and all have to be done and reflected up, right? I'm merely doing a good job in 'highlighting' critical issues of the company (or you laymen may say it's backstabbing but I dun really fuck care as long as voices are clearly communicated out). My conscience is clear as long as I did not make up any ungrounded stories. Towards IFU, my patience is really up, that’s all.

Oh it's a great relieve!! Finally, I can let out some steam. Apparently my FD was upset after hearing what I have said. He assured me that he will speak to my French GM and best of all, he will not mention my name at all because he can actually see and feel of what’s happening to IFU, hee. Anyway I know my GM will not do anything to IFU and you can say I’m evil and despicable but at least at this moment, for the fact I can voice out the undesired and unfair practices in my office to a higher authority (I understand the chain of reporting but definitely NO NO to my GM cos he is not going to do anything to him anyway, so why should I waste my breath and make myself look bad?), I feel justified!!

Mille Fois Merci, Monsieur Dutang!!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging

itunes: The Whispers, 30th Anniversary Anthology (1994)

Just did a test on personality called Jung Typology Test on this website: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm. The analysis reflects nearly 100% of my character. Amazing is not it?

My results are as follows:

My type is INTJ which means:
Introverted 11%, slightly expressed introvert
Intuitive 38%, moderately expressed intuitive personality
Thinking 38%, moderately expressed thinking personality
Judging 67%, distinctively expressed judging personality

To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.

INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.

INTJs are known as the "Systems Builders" of the types, perhaps in part because they possess the unusual trait combination of imagination and reliability. Whatever system an INTJ happens to be working on is for them the equivalent of a moral cause to an INFJ; both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come into play, as INTJs can be unsparing of both themselves and the others on the project. Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose their respect -- and will generally be made aware of this; INTJs have also been known to take it upon themselves to implement critical decisions without consulting their supervisors or co-workers. On the other hand, they do tend to be scrupulous and even-handed about recognizing the individual contributions that have gone into a project, and have a gift for seizing opportunities which others might not even notice.

In the broadest terms, what INTJs "do" tends to be what they "know". Typical INTJ career choices are in the sciences and engineering, but they can be found wherever a combination of intellect and incisiveness are required (e.g., law, some areas of academia). INTJs can rise to management positions when they are willing to invest time in marketing their abilities as well as enhancing them, and (whether for the sake of ambition or the desire for privacy) many also find it useful to learn to simulate some degree of surface conformism in order to mask their inherent unconventionality.

Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.

This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Fs -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.

Probably the strongest INTJ assets in the interpersonal area are their intuitive abilities and their willingness to "work at" a relationship. Although as Ts they do not always have the kind of natural empathy that many Fs do, the Intuitive function can often act as a good substitute by synthesizing the probable meanings behind such things as tone of voice, turn of phrase, and facial expression. This ability can then be honed and directed by consistent, repeated efforts to understand and support those they care about, and those relationships which ultimately do become established with an INTJ tend to be characterized by their robustness, stability, and good communications.

Functional Analysis
Introverted iNtuition
INTJs are idea people. Anything is possible; everything is negotiable. Whatever the outer circumstances, INTJs are ever perceiving inner pattern-forms and using real-world materials to operationalize them. Others may see what is and wonder why; INTJs see what might be and say "Why not?!" Paradoxes, antinomies, and other contradictory phenomena aptly express these intuitors' amusement at those whom they feel may be taking a particular view of reality too seriously. INTJs enjoy developing unique solutions to complex problems.

Extraverted Thinking
Thinking in this auxiliary role is a workhorse. Closure is the payoff for efforts expended. Evaluation begs diagnosis; product drives process. As they come to light, Thinking tends, protects, affirms and directs iNtuition's offspring, fully equipping them for fulfilling and useful lives. A faithful pedagogue, Thinking argues not so much on its own behalf, but in defense of its charges. And through this process these impressionable ideas take on the likeness of their master.

Introverted Feeling
Feeling has a modest inner room, two doors down from the Most Imminent iNtuition. It doesn't get out much, but lends its influence on behalf of causes which are Good and Worthy and Humane. We may catch a glimpse of it in the unspoken attitude of good will, or the gracious smile or nod. Some question the existence of Feeling in this type, yet its unseen balance to Thinking is a cardinal dimension in the full measure of the INTJ's soul.

Extraverted Sensing
Sensing serves with a good will, or not at all. As other inferior functions, it has only a rudimentary awareness of context, amount or degree. Thus INTJs sweat the details or, at times, omit them. "I've made up my mind, don't confuse me with the facts" could well have been said by an INTJ on a mission. Sensing's extraverted attitude is evident in this type's bent to savor sensations rather than to merely categorize them. Indiscretions of indulgence are likely an expression of the unconscious vengeance of the inferior.

Famous INTJs:
Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers)
Susan B. Anthony
Arthur Ashe, tennis champion
Augustus Caesar (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus)
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
William J. Bennett, "drug czar"
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironsides)
Chevy Chase (Cornelius Crane) (Fletch)
Phil Donahue
Michael Dukakis, governor of Mass., 1988 U.S. Dem. pres. candidate
Greg Gumbel, television sportscaster
Hannibal, Carthaginian military leader
Veronica Hamel (Hill Street Blues)
Angela Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote)
Orel Leonard Hershiser, IV
Peter Jennings
Charles Everett Koop
Ivan Lendl
C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia)
Joan Lunden
Edwin Moses, U.S. olympian (hurdles)
Martina Navratilova
Charles Rangel, U. S. Representative, D-N.Y.
Pernell Roberts (Bonanza)
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California
Josephine Tey (Elizabeth Mackintosh), mystery writer (Brat Farrar)
Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor
Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense
General Colin Powell, US Secretary of State
Lance Armstrong
Richard Gere (Pretty Woman)
Katie Couric

Thursday, November 02, 2006

The Ultimate......Incorrigible Fanatic III

itunes: Turin Brakes, The Optimist LP (2001)

You are not going to believe this. I cant believe my eyes either.
Our pantry auntie has been on leave for 2 days, yesterday and today. Needless to say, our rubbish bins remain unclear as well. Around 4pm today, I heard a familiar thrash bag rustling sound and wondered why would pantry auntie came back just to clear the rubbish.

Gosh, it was that useless IT manager. He was holding a trash bag, going from table to table to empty bins beneath. Oh what a lovely sight! IT manager clearing rubbish???!!!! Are my eyes fooling me? Everyone's jaw dropped but no one said a single word. I waited for him to come to my room and I told it was not necessary for him to do that really cos the pantry auntie will be back in office tomorrow anyway. Guess what he said? He said this is the usual practice, whenever pantry auntie is not around, he will help to clear the rubbish. I'm really dumbfounded indeed.

What fucking nonsense is this? If he is replacing the pantry auntie, why is he not making my daily cup of green tea and wash everyone's cup in the morning? Oh yes, I almost forgot, he is always the last to step into the office everyday, thus he may not have the chance to wash our cups these 2 days.

We all know he is busy only with his outside 'community work' during office hours and he is extending that ‘community service’ physically to the office now???!!!! Why not clean the glass door and water the plants as well, asshole???!!!! If he really so helpful-minded, then where is my report B? It has been 3 weeks from that blowout incident and everything dies down again. (For more info on report B, read the Incorrigible Fanatic series in my earlier blogs) My useless boss knows this asshole is a leech of this company and yet did nothing about it!!! All he cares is only know to chase me for report B. He can go and fly his own kite. Hey discipline your ‘helpful’ IT manager before asking me for report B, jerk!!

Hypocrite fucker! If this IT asshole really so civic-minded then perhaps he should attend to all his outstanding tasks (office ones NOT his 'community service' ones DAMN! Not only my report B, he owes many people other tasks as well) first and not getting himself involved in things that are none of his bloody business. Day in day out, whenever I walk behind his seat, he is forever doing his personal things only. Shameless! Sometimes I just feel like taking his monitor and smash it on the floor, or just simply reformat his hard disk when he is not around.

Where is the justice nowadays? Eaten up by dogs izzit?

Incorrigible lump of shit.